I am an adult cult survivor living in Nova Scotia Canada. My book recommendations come from personal experience and knowing of the principles that hold people in cults. My cult was the IBLP, or ATI, run by Bill Gothard, and featured in the docu-series, Shiny Happy People on Amazon Prime. Since I raised my three children in a cult, I am fascinated by other people’s cult experiences. Reading them helped me to realize that I wasn’t alone. Whenever I see a new podcast or a book about someone else’s cult, I have to read it.
I wrote...
Behind the Dress: One woman's life in a religious cult and the healing that came later
This was one of the first books I read about cults to which I could totally relate. Because I raised my children in a cult, I could understand the end times mania, making children work in dangerous situations, and the thought that governments are not working for our common good.
I found myself cheering Tara as she lived a certain hell but managed to escape it, get a proper education, and go on to write her story. Reading Tara’s story made me realize that the life I had lived could have gone down that road, and it almost did.
Frankly, I couldn’t put it down. It could serve as a warning about extremism and isolationism. It never ends well.
Selected as a book of the year by AMAZON, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, VOGUE, IRISH TIMES, IRISH EXAMINER and RED MAGAZINE
'One of the best books I have ever read . . . unbelievably moving' Elizabeth Day 'An extraordinary story, beautifully told' Louise O'Neill 'A memoir to stand alongside the classics . . . compelling and joyous' Sunday Times
Tara Westover grew up preparing for the end of the world. She was never put in school, never taken to the doctor. She did not even have a birth certificate…
The author, Tia Levings, was in the same cult that I’d been in. Her story touched me on many levels, but the danger she was in right from her wedding night captivated me. As she related the progression of danger she and her children were in, although I knew she survived, I couldn’t put the book down.
I wanted to know HOW she survived and how she became a functioning member of society afterward. Tia’s story was a lesson to me in overcoming such a controlling and dangerous situation. I loved her tenacity and how she jumped into action when she knew ‘this is it’ to save her family.
“Today it hit me when he hit me, blood shaking in my brain. Maybe there wasn't a savior coming. Maybe it was up to me to save me.”
Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia Levings learned that being a good Christian meant following a list of additional life principles––a series of secret, special rules to obey. Being a godly and submissive wife in Christian Patriarchy included strict discipline, isolation, and an alternative lifestyle that appeared wholesome to outsiders. Women were to be silent, “keepers of the home.”
Gifts from a Challenging Childhood
by
Jan Bergstrom,
Learn to understand and work with your childhood wounds. Do you feel like old wounds or trauma from your childhood keep showing up today? Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with what to do about it and where to start? If so, this book will help you travel down a path…
The Duggar family was one I looked up to when I was in the same cult as them. They seemed to have it all together as a family and looked very happy. Reading Jill’s book, however, showed me that most of that was on the surface. There were many deep secrets in their family, just as there had been in mine.
I cheered this lady on as I read and saw her overcoming her controlled past to live a life that shows her as being quite human. Her story made me realize that what you see on the surface in a person or a family is really only the tip of the iceberg: the big ugly is all underwater and concealed.
For the first time, discover the unedited truth about the Duggars, the traditional Christian family that captivated the nation on TLC's hit show 19 Kids and Counting. Jill Duggar and her husband Derick are finally ready to share their story, revealing the secrets, manipulation, and intimidation behind the show in this "no-holds barred" (People) instant New York Times bestseller.
Jill and Derick knew a normal life wasn't possible for them. As a star on the popular TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Jill grew up in front of viewers who were fascinated by her family's way of life. She…
In Christian marriages, women are often the glue that holds the family together, but what do you do when you think you might be being abused? Natalie’s story brought to light a lot of the things that Christian women put up with, all in the name of biblical submission.
I have lived a similar life as Natalie, and I also belonged to one of her recovery groups, which helped me immensely. As women, we often think we are the problem, but often, we are being criticized, overburdened, and overworked in homeschooling our children and giving ourselves joyfully to our husbands.
Many of Natalie’s questions are ones I’ve asked myself. Her book helped me a lot.
One out of three married women sitting in an average conservative Christian church is in a confusing and painful marriage relationship. These women believe they are alone. I want them to know they aren't. They believe they can't find peace. I want them to know they can. They believe they don't have choices. I want them to know they do.
If this sounds like you, join me on a journey of discovery that will change your life. We'll look at exactly what is going on in your marriage (no more confusion!) and what a normal marriage looks like. You'll learn…
Gifts from a Challenging Childhood
by
Jan Bergstrom,
Learn to understand and work with your childhood wounds. Do you feel like old wounds or trauma from your childhood keep showing up today? Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with what to do about it and where to start? If so, this book will help you travel down a path…
A good book tells the truth—and that’s what Shari Franke did here. I often wondered what went on behind the scenes of ‘perfect’ families. I read this book in two sittings; I couldn’t put it down because Shari told everything about the 8 Passengers family.
It was interesting to get inside the head of the oldest daughter of this infamous family and see where she’s at now. I love that Shari is now petitioning the courts to give rights to the children of family vlogs whose lives are exposed for the world to see.
“Heart-wrenchingly personal...dizzying.” —Rolling Stone
From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog—now the subject of a new Hulu docuseries—and the hidden abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, and how, in the face of unimaginable pain, she found freedom and healing.
Shari Franke's childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children…
A patriarchal, fundamentalist and abusive cult that was hidden in plain sight. The Amazon Prime docuseries Shiny Happy People tells the students' stories of abuse, control and brainwashing that took place in The ATI cult. This is a mother's story of what she lived and the rules she lived by until, thankfully she found herself out of the cult but unable to live in the world like a 'normal' person.
Have you known someone who was in a cult? Do you think you know your neighbors pretty well? You really don't know what's going on behind the smile, the dress and the doors of the house down the street.
This is the story of a Canadian woman who was in the Advanced Training Institute, run by Bill Gothard, for fourteen years. The amazing thing is that she never knew she was in a cult until several years after she was out. That's what happened to Christine in 2014. She has spent the past nine years trying to deprogram and change the way she sees the world. The Advanced Training Institute had all the hallmarks of a cult, it even fit Bill Gothard's definition of a cult, but Christine and her family believed they were God's cream of the crop. Join her as she navigates the cult, goes through a divorce, finds out she was in a cult and subsequently has to unlearn all she believed to be true. Interestingly, this is the same cult the Duggar family of 19 Kids and counting is a part of.
